From the Publisher:
A thoroughly researched account of weapons innovation and industrialization during the Civil War
A year after seceding from the Union, South Carolina faced
the daunting challenge of equipping soldiers with weapons, ammunition, and
other military implements during the American Civil War, a problem faced by the
Confederate States government as well. In The Best Gun in the World, Robert S.
Seigler explains how South Carolina created its own armory and then enlisted
the help of a weapons technology inventor to meet the demand. Seigler mined
state and federal factory records, national and state archives, and U.S.
patents for detailed information on weapons production, the salaries and status
of free and enslaved employees, and other financial records to reveal an
interesting, distinctive story of technological innovation and
industrialization in South Carolina.
George Woodward Morse, originally from New Hampshire, was a
machinist and firearms innovator who settled in Louisiana in the 1840s. He
invented a reliable breechloading firearm in the mid-1850s to replace the
muzzleloaders that were ubiquitous throughout the world. Essential to the
successful operation of any breechloader was its ammunition, and Morse
perfected the first metallic, center-fire, preprimed cartridge, his most
notable contribution to the development of modern firearms.
The U.S. War Department tested Morse rifles and cartridges
prior to the beginning of the Civil War and contracted with the inventor to
produce the weapons at Harpers Ferry Armory. However, when the war began,
Morse, a slaveholding plantation owner, determined that he could sell more of
his guns in the South. The South Carolina State Military Works, originally
designed to cast cannon, produced Morse’s carbine and modified muskets, brass
cartridges, cartridge boxes, and other military accoutrements. The armory
ultimately produced only about 1,350 Morse firearms. For the next twenty years,
Morse sought to regain his legacy as the inventor of the center-fire brass
cartridges that are today standard ammunition for military and sporting
firearms.
Robert S. Seigler, a South Carolina native, is a recipient
of the Order of the Palmetto (the highest civilian honor in South Carolina) and
is a fellow in the Explorers Club and the Royal Geographical Society. He is the
author of eight books and several journal articles about South Carolina’s Civil
War history. Seigler practices medicine in Greenville, South Carolina, where he
is the medical director of the pediatric intensive care unit and a professor of
pediatrics at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville.
Publisher's web site for The Best Gun in the World University of South Carolina Press
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